Good Time Charlie
by mascaret
Summary: A Before the Fall scene that seeks to bridge the gap between Laura’s series of flashbacks in Daybreak. Warning : Contains neither good times nor a Charlie. part 1 of 3


A/N Thank you Beth and Catie for giving this the once over.

I've been working for a while on a long fic that alternates by chapter between series Bill/Laura and pre-presidential Laura which necessarily includes a lot of Richard Adar. This is one of the chapters of that fic. I'm posting this as a sort of a test balloon to see if there would actually be interest in such a fic.

Summary: A Before the Fall scene that seeks to bridge the gap between Laura's series of flashbacks in Daybreak.

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_Good Time Charlie_

She could tell he was more than a little surprised to get her call on a weekend and at his house no less. She never called him. It just wasn't something that happened.

"Laura? It's good to hear your voice."

"It's good to hear your voice too, Richard."

"How are you?"

"Oh, I've had better days, Mr. Mayor." She smiled. "And yourself?"

"My day would be dandy if I didn't have your Superintendent up my ass every hour on the hour."

"He isn't going to back down this time, Richard. You are going to have to give him something. He's retiring at the end of this year. This is his last hurrah and he means to make it count."

"If he is retiring, can't I just wait him out?"

"You could try, but I can't say I would recommend it. He's got nothing to lose by burning all his bridges and he knows it."

Richard sighed before moving onto what was for him a happier topic. "Who do you think is going to replace him? I know who I would like to see in the position. A certain past Teacher of the Year recipient, perhaps?"

"Why don't _you _ever give me a Teacher of the Year award?"

"Because the mayor before me already did that."

"Yes," she laughed. "The mayor before you got to do a lot of things you'll never get to do."

"Didn't need to know that, Laura," the current mayor chided her.

"So what do you say? Are you going to put your name in the hat for Superintendent? You know you would get the job."

Laura laughed. "Oh I don't see that happening, Mr. Mayor. I _really_ don't see that happening."

"You know you would have my vote."

"Yes, well a frak lot of good that will do me since the mayor doesn't get a vote on the school board. I suspect one of the two current assistant Superintendents will get the nod."

"So who is going to get kicked up the stairs to take the soon to be vacated assistant Superintendent position?"

"Richard, you know I hate the politics. I just want to teach."

"Yes, but I also know that you want to be heard so this could be the best of both worlds for you. Doesn't the assistant Superintendent still teach part time?"

"I suppose that is something to consider, but there aren't any part time positions at my school. I'd have to change schools."

"Laura that would be a good thing. You work at by far the worst school in the city. You got shanked by one of your students the year before last!"

"First of all, _I wasn't shanked_, Mr. Mayor – though I do find it absolutely adorable that you tried to use that word. _I was shived_. Shanks are fashioned out of metal objects. When you sprang for metal detectors for my school the year before I was shived, knifings and shankings became fairly uncommon. Shivs, however, can pass through the metal detectors because they are constructed out of nonmetal objects. I was _shived_ with a very finely sharpened toothbru-"

"-Laura, for fraks sake! I don't care what you were stabbed with. What matters is _you were stabbed by one of your students_."

"Secondly, that was _not_ one of my students! I was covering someone else's class. Two of my students did however immediately come to my defense and shiv the boy who shived me."

"I thought he was _shived_ with three different _shivs_?"

"True," Laura admitted, "but I didn't know the other student. He just wanted in on the shiving."

"'_He just wanted in on the shiving?'_ That's a great school you have there, Laura. Are you aware that even the Superintendent calls your school Shank Central instead of Seacade Central High School?"

She didn't bother to respond. Once he got started he would just go on without any encouragement.

"Laura, to balance the city's budget – to get every department out of the red – not just the school budget, but the police department, the fire department, the prisons, and the city hospitals all out of the red, all I would need to do is next Parents' Night at your school wait until everyone gathers inside –"

She had heard him make this particular threat so often she was able to finish it with him. " –chain the doors shut and set fire to the building with all my delinquents and their criminal parents inside."

She shook her head with a laugh. "That's an ingenious idea, Mr. Mayor. The only flaw I can find in it is that you actually think that the parents show up for Parents' Night at my school. If the parents were at all involved in their children's lives I doubt my students would be nearly as much trouble. So essentially you are just burning alive a group of school teachers."

"Having just seen the teacher union's latest contract requests, I have to say it's still not a half bad idea, Laura. If I could convince you to take the night off I would give some serious consideration to it."

"How thoughtful of you, Richard."

"Laura, your school is like a prison movie. And not one of the good prison movies where most of the film takes place in the women's showers."

Not currently in the mood to think about women's prisons, Laura tried to bring them at least slightly back on track. "Mr. Mayor, as you are well aware the school safety – not to mention test scores - has improved greatly in the past year and a half thanks to the mayor's office's increased attention and funding."

"Laura, sometimes I swear you deliberately provoked that boy into stabbing you so I would give your school more funding."

After a beat, he prodded her. "Laura, this it the part where you deny having provoked him to get more funding for your school."

She gave a light laugh. "Why Richard, do you really think me capable of something so underhanded?"

"Laura, I'm well aware of just how underhanded you can be. Now I want you to more than just consider the assistant –"

The man standing next to her, the one whose phone she was using to make the call, was signaling her to wrap up the conversation, but she couldn't help but smile - Richard Adar always had that effect on her.

"- If I could interrupt you for just a moment, Mr. Mayor, I'm afraid my two minute phone call is almost up and I really wanted to get your advice on something before I have to go."

"You coming to me for advice? This is certainly a momentous occasion."

Momentous. Not exactly the word she would have selected, but it wasn't exactly inaccurate. She took a breath to steady herself.

"Richard, you know the fountains near my apartment where you and I meet for lunch -"

"- You mean the fountains that are equal distance to your home, my office and your school?"

"It's not a school or an office day so can we just agree to refer to them as the fountains near my apartment?"

He considered it a beat before agreeing. "I'll stipulate to that, but for this conversation only."

"Continuing then, the fountains near my apartment –where you and I meet for lunch quite frequently because you fear the scandal that might ensue should we actually go inside my apartment to have lunch?"

"Laura, you know how important it is to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. You and I know there is nothing untoward going on between us, but if people saw me coming in and out of your home, they might get the wrong idea."

She laughed. "Richard, you are so paranoid. Do you seriously think people are going to accuse you of stopping by for a nooner if we have lunch in my apartment?"

Sometimes in moments like this it seemed to her like the worlds had stopped and she could see everything so clearly. "Or is it that you are afraid we might actually _have_ a nooner if we were to have lunch in my apartment?"

She heard Richard clear his throat. "You are certainly in a mood today." After another lost beat he pulled out one of his standard catchphrases. "A good friend is worth far more than a good frak, Laura. I think we both know that."

"_Why Mr. Mayor, are you implying that I might be a good frak?"_

"Laura, in a survey of one hundred random men stopped on the streets of Caprica City nine out of ten agree that Laura Roslin is quite the frak. The remaining one out of ten has yet to frak you."

She laughed. "That was a good one, Richard. You should have saved it for a special occasion when more people would have been around to appreciate it."

"Laura, I'm not sure you are aware of this, but while a condom is intended for one time use a man can be rinsed and reused. You aren't supposed to treat them as disposable."

"Is that so?"

"Now speaking of special occasions - how was the baby shower yesterday?"

She pressed her lips together a moment before answering, the delight in her voice genuine. "It was wonderful, Richard. She was so happy."

"You ever think about having one of your own?"

"Are you offering, Mr. Mayor?"

Another lost beat. "Laura? Is everything all right, Laura? You sound a little … off."

She repeated the answer she had already given him. "I've had better days, Richard."

"Listen, Laura. I have plans, big plans. I'm going places and I want you there with me. You've got a level head on your shoulders."

She positively chortled at his choice of words, but continuing to talk, he seemed not to notice.

"Where I'm going, I'm going to need people like you. So what do you say, Laura? Do you want to go places with me?"

_"'I'm going places and I want you there with me,'_" she quoted back to him. "Richard, does that bullshit line actually work on people?"

"Only all the time. So what do you say? Do you want to go places with me?"

She knew the line worked on people. She knew the line worked on her. Her entire body gave an involuntary thrill every time she heard him say it.

"Oh don't you worry about me, Mr. Mayor. I'm going places of my own."

"So where are you going, Laura?"

"If we can get back to talking about the fountains I could tell you."

"All right then. So the fountains by your home. Are you asking me to lunch, Laura?"

"No, Mr. Mayor."

"Good because my wife is here staring at me and I have to say I don't think she would approve after just having heard me describe you as quite the frak."

Laughing, she couldn't resist baiting him. "And do you always only do things of which your wife would approve?"

"It tends to keep my life less complicated."

"Less complicated has its upside, I guess." She agreed.

"So no lunch, just advice. And what is it that you want my advice on, Laura?"

"Well, this morning, I went for a little frolic in the water at the public fountains –"

" – a frolic?" He laughed. "Haven't we spoken of this before, Laura. As tempting as it may be, no frolicking in the public fountains."

"Richard, you are burning up my two minutes!" She mock scolded him, but she knew that she had already far passed her supposed two minutes mark.

"Why is it that you have only two minutes to talk to me?"

"If you would let me finish …" She moistened her lips. "I went for a little frolic in the water there this morning and when the very nice young police officer whose phone I am currently using asked me to get out I refused – a bit vehemently I might add. So I am being arrested on suspicion of public intoxication, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, two counts of assaulting a police officer- they travel in pairs - and a few other things that escape me at the moment."

_"Laura?"_

Ignoring the interruption, she pressed on. "They would like to do a breathalyzer test to prove that I am drunk and while I haven't been drinking and I could pass the test, I'm not sure if I should agree to take it or not. Now my question to you, the consummate politician and former prosecutor, is this: which do you think would play better to the school board – that I had a bit of a breakdown or that I was drunk when I did those things?"

"Laura, what's going on?"

"Normally, I wouldn't bother you about such a thing, Mr. Mayor. I would call my father or maybe one of my sisters for advice, but you see I can't do that right now, Richard, because they're all dead."

Now that she had finally finished speaking, he didn't seem to have anything to say.

"Still there, Richard?"

"Laura, don't say another word. Not to _anyone_. Don't agree to do anything and don't sign anything. Are you still at the fountains?"

"Laura?" he repeated. "Laura, answer me!"

She bit her lip to stifle her laugh because she knew if she let it out he would think it was one of hysteria. "You said not to say another word to anyone."

"_Laura_," her name came out in a groan. "I'm ten minutes away. I need you to keep it together until I get there."

"Take your time, Mr. Mayor. It's not like I'm going anywhere."

Flexing the muscles in her arms to try to ease the ache from the awkward positioning of having her hands zip tied together behind her back, Laura took Richard's advice to keep quiet. Her lips quirked into an awkward smile as she simply nodded her thanks to the officer who had been holding the phone for her.

_tbc_


End file.
